Prehistoric Ireland
The prehistory of Ireland has been pieced together from
The two periods that have left the most spectacular groups of remains are the Neolithic, with its
Ireland has many areas of
Glaciation and the Palaeolithic
History of Ireland |
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t |
During the Last Glacial Maximum,[5] (between about 26,000 and 20,000 years BP) ice sheets more than 3,000 m (9,800 ft) thick scoured the landscape of Ireland. By 24,000 years ago they extended beyond the southern coast of Ireland; but by 16,000 years ago the glaciers had retreated so that only an ice bridge remained between Northern Ireland and Scotland. By 14,000 years ago Ireland was completely isolated from Britain; and this glacial period is recognized as having ended about 11,700 years ago, without glaciers being present, but leaving Ireland as an arctic tundra landscape.[6][7][8] This period is referred to as the Midlandian glaciation.[9]
During the period between 17,500 and 12,000 years ago, a warmer period referred to as the
These factors and ecological changes brought humans to the edge of the northernmost ice-free zones of continental Europe by the onset of the Holocene (11.5ky ago) and this included regions close to Ireland. However, during the early part of the Holocene Ireland itself had a climate that was inhospitable to most European animals and plants. Human occupation was unlikely, although fishing was possible.
Britain and Ireland may have been joined by a land bridge, but because this hypothetical link would have been cut by rising sea levels early into the warm period, perhaps by 14,000 BC, few temperate terrestrial flora or fauna would have crossed into Ireland.[10] Snakes and most other reptiles could not populate Ireland because any land bridge disappeared before temperatures became warm enough for them.[11] The lowered sea level also joined Britain to continental Europe; this persisted much longer, probably until around 5600 BC.[12]
The earliest known modern humans in Ireland date back to the late
A British site on the eastern coast of the Irish Sea, dated to 11,000 BC, indicated people in the area were eating a marine diet including shellfish.[citation needed] These people may have also colonised Ireland by boat. Perhaps because there were few resources outside of coastal areas which permitted fishing, the region may not have been continually occupied. The early coastline of Ireland is now almost entirely under the sea, so evidence of coastal populations is mostly lost.[10]
The return of freezing conditions in the Younger Dryas, which lasted from 10,900 BC to 9700 BC, may have depopulated Ireland. During the Younger Dryas, sea levels continued to rise, and an ice-free land bridge between Great Britain and Ireland never returned.[16]
Mesolithic (8000–4000 BC)
The
Evidence for Mesolithic
The hunter-gatherers of the Mesolithic era lived on a varied diet of seafood, birds,
Neolithic (4000–2500 BC)
Many areas of Europe entered the Neolithic (New Stone Age) with a 'package' of cereal cultivars, pastoral animals (domesticated oxen/cattle, sheep, goats), pottery, weaving, housing and burial cultures, which arrived simultaneously, a process that began in central Europe as LBK (Linear Pottery culture) about 6000 BC. Within several hundred years this culture was present in northern France. An alternative Neolithic culture, La Hoguette culture, that arrived in France's northwestern region appears to be a derivative of the Ibero Italian-Eastern Adriatic Impressed Cardial Ware culture (Cardium pottery). The La Hoguette culture, like the western Cardial culture, raised sheep and goats more intensely. By 5100 BC there is evidence of dairy practices in southern England, and modern English cattle appear to be derived from "T1 Taurids" that were domesticated in the Aegean region shortly after the onset of the Holocene. These animals were probably derived from cattle from the Linear Pottery culture. Around 4300 BC cattle arrived in northern Ireland during the late Mesolithic period. The red deer was introduced from Britain about this time.[25]
From around 4500 BC a Neolithic package that included cereal cultivars, housing culture (similar to those of the same period in Scotland) and stone monuments arrived in Ireland. Sheep, goats, cattle and cereals were imported from southwestern continental Europe, after which the population rose significantly. The earliest clear proof of farmers in Ireland or Great Britain is from Ferriter's Cove on the Dingle Peninsula, where a flint knife, cattle bones and a sheep's tooth were found and dated to c. 4350 BC.[27] At the Céide Fields in County Mayo, an extensive Neolithic field system (arguably the oldest known in the world) has been preserved beneath a blanket of peat. Consisting of small fields separated from one another by dry-stone walls, the Céide Fields were farmed for several centuries between 3500 and 3000 BC. Wheat and barley were the principal crops cultivated. Pottery made its appearance around the same time as agriculture. Ware similar to that found in northern Great Britain has been excavated in Ulster (Lyle's Hill pottery) and in Limerick. Typical of this ware are wide-mouthed, round-bottomed bowls.[28]
This follows a pattern similar to western Europe or gradual onset of Neolithic, such as seen in La Hoguette Culture of France and Iberia's Impressed Cardial Ware Culture. Cereal culture advance markedly slows north of France; certain cereal strains such as wheat were difficult to grow in cold climates—however, barley and
Some regions of Ireland showed patterns of pastoralism that indicated that some Neolithic peoples continued to move and indicates that pastoral activities dominated agrarian activities in many regions or that there was a division of labour between pastoral and agrarian aspects of the Neolithic. At the height of the Neolithic the population of the island was probably in excess of 100,000, and perhaps as high as 200,000.[citation needed] But there appears to have been an economic collapse around 2500 BC, and the population declined for a while.[citation needed]
Monuments
The most striking characteristic of the Neolithic in Ireland was the sudden appearance and dramatic proliferation of
- Types of Irish megalithic tombs
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Knowth, a passage tomb at Brú na Bóinne
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Poulnabrone dolmen, a portal tomb in The Burren
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Labbacallee wedge tomb
- Kilcommon, Erris.
- Passage tombs – These constitute the smallest group in terms of numbers, but they are the most impressive in terms of size and importance. They are also found in much of Europe, and in Ireland are distributed mainly through the north and east, the biggest and most impressive of them being found in the four great Neolithic "cemeteries" of the Boyne (Brú na Bóinne, a World Heritage Site), Loughcrew (both in County Meath), Carrowkeel and Carrowmore (both in County Sligo). The most famous of them is Newgrange, one of the oldest astronomically aligned monuments in the world. It was built around 3200 BC. At the winter solstice the first rays of the rising sun still shine through a light-box above the entrance to the tomb and illuminate the burial chamber at the centre of the monument. Another of the Boyne megaliths, Knowth, has been claimed to contain the world's earliest map of the Moon carved into stone.
- , but often their covering has now eroded to leave the impressive main stone structure. Most of them are to be found in two main concentrations, one in the southeast of the island and one in the north. The Knockeen and Gaulstown Dolmens in County Waterford are exceptional examples.
- Wedge tombs – The largest and most widespread of the four groups, the wedge tombs are particularly common in the west and southwest. County Clareis exceptionally rich in them. They are the latest of the four types and belong to the end of the Neolithic. They are so called from their wedge-shaped burial chambers.
The theory that these four groups of monuments were associated with four separate waves of invading colonists still has its adherents today, but the growth in population that made them possible need not have been the result of colonisation: it may simply have been the natural consequence of the introduction of agriculture.
Portable artefacts
The
There was a much rarer class of imported prestige axe head made from jadeite from north Italy; these may have been slowly traded across Europe to reach Ireland over a period reaching into centuries, and show no signs of use.[31] Miniature axes, too small to be useful, were made, and a "tiny porcellanite axe" has been found in a passage tomb; another example has a hole for a cord, and may have been worn as jewellery or an amulet. Other stone shapes made were chisels, adzes, maces and spearheads. Only one decorated macehead has been found, in one of the tombs at Knowth, but it is extremely fine. Some finds may also be miniature maceheads.[32]
Pierced beads and pendants are found, and two necklaces of shells (from Phoenix Park in Dublin) are very carefully made, with graded periwinkle shells; these were on the remains of two males. As an example of the exceptional preservation sometimes possible in items found in anaerobic bogs, part of a finely woven bag with circular handles has survived; it used reedy plant material wound round thin strips of wood. Decorated pottery, apparently made for funerary rather than domestic use, appears to imitate basketry patterns.[33]
Open-air rock art
Open-air rock art is another monument type that dates to the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age.
Copper and Bronze Ages (2500–500 BC)
Metallurgy arrived in Ireland with new people, generally known as the
The
Bronze was used for the manufacture of both weapons and tools. Swords, axes, daggers, hatchets, halberds, awls, drinking utensils and horn-shaped trumpets are just some of the items that have been unearthed at
Copper used in the manufacture of bronze was mined in Ireland, chiefly in the southwest of the island, while the tin was imported from Cornwall in Britain. The earliest known copper mine in these islands was located at Ross Island, at the Lakes of Killarney in County Kerry; mining and metalworking took place there between 2400 and 1800 BC. Another of Europe's best-preserved copper mines has been discovered at Mount Gabriel in County Cork, which was worked for several centuries in the middle of the second millennium.[39] Mines in Cork and Kerry are believed to have produced as much as 370 tonnes of copper during the Bronze Age.
Ireland was also rich in native gold, and the Bronze Age saw the first extensive working of this precious metal by Irish craftsmen. More Bronze Age gold hoards have been discovered in Ireland than anywhere else in Europe. Irish gold ornaments have been found as far afield as Germany and Scandinavia, and gold-related trade was very possibly a major factor in the Bronze Age Irish economy.
In the early stages of the Bronze Age the gold ornaments included simple but finely decorated gold lunulae, a distinctively Irish type of object later made in Britain and continental Europe, and disks of thin gold sheet. Many of these seem to have been long in use before they were deposited. Later the thin twisted torc made its appearance; this was a collar consisting of a bar or ribbon of metal, twisted into a spiral. Other types of gold jewellery made in Ireland during the Bronze Age, most shared with Britain, include earrings,[40] sun disks,[41] bracelets, clothes fasteners, and in the Late Bronze Age, the distinctively Irish large "gorgets",[42] and bullae amulets.[43] After the Bronze Age goldwork almost ceased to be produced in Ireland;[44] the Irish deposits may well have been essentially exhausted.
Construction of wedge tombs tailed off from about 2,200 BC,[45] and while the previous tradition of large scale monument building was much reduced, existing earlier megalithic monuments continued in use in the form of secondary insertions of funerary and ritual artefacts. Towards the end of the Bronze Age the single-grave cist made its appearance. This consisted of a small rectangular stone chest, covered with a stone slab and buried a short distance below the surface. The body might be cremated, or not. Decorated pots often accompanied the remains,[46] and later cremated remains were placed inside the urn, which was turned upside-down, and might also have grave goods of various sorts.[45] Numerous stone circles were also erected at this time, chiefly in Ulster and Munster.
Crannogs are timber homes built in shallow lakes for security, often with a narrow walkway to the shore. Some use or extend natural islets, and the largest probably housed a number of families, and animals. It is thought that most of the 1,200-odd crannogs in Ireland were begun in the Bronze Age, although many sites seem to have been used, continuously or intermittently, over very long periods, even into medieval times.
The large Dowris Hoard, originally of over 200 items, mostly in bronze, has given its name to the Dowris Phase or period, as a term for the final phase of the Irish Bronze Age, about 900-600 BC. With 48 examples, the hoard contained all but two of the known examples of the distinctive "crotals", bronze rattles in the shape of a bull's testicle, as well as 26 horns or trumpets, weapons, and vessels.[47] The rather earlier Dunaverney flesh-hook (perhaps 1050–900 BC) is suggestive of a culture where elite feasting was important, and reflects influence from continental Europe; very large riveted bronze cauldrons were also made.[48] Large numbers of bronze weapons were produced, and typical sword shapes changed from shorter ones for stabbing and thrusting on foot, to longer ones, perhaps for a mounted warrior to slash with.[49] This is one example of a Dowris Phase design type originating in the Hallstatt culture of continental Europe, probably transmitted via southern Britain; chapes for scabbards is another.[50]
During the Bronze Age, the climate of Ireland deteriorated and extensive deforestation took place. The population of Ireland at the end of the Bronze Age was probably in excess of 100,000, and may have been as high as 200,000. It is possible that it was not much greater than it had been at the height of the Neolithic.[citation needed] In Ireland the Bronze Age lasted until c. 500 BC, later than continental Europe and also Britain.[51]
-
Part of the Dowris Hoard
-
Tongue-shaped bronze dagger, Hunt Museum[52]
-
Gold Dress Fastener, Clones, County Monaghan, 800-700 BC
-
Late Bronze Age bracelet from Castlederg, c. 950-800 BC
-
Late Bronze Age gold "gorget", 800-700 BC, found in County Clare. NMI, Dublin
Iron Age (500 BC–AD 400)
The Irish
Alternatively, many hold the view that this happened with the bearers of the Bell Beaker culture, probably Indo-European speaking, reaching Ireland during the earlier stage of the Bronze Age.[55] The Celtic languages of Britain and Ireland, also known as Insular Celtic, can be divided into two groups, Goidelic and Brittonic. When primary written records of Celtic first appear in about the fifth century, Gaelic or Goidelic, in the form of Primitive Irish, is found in Ireland, while Brittonic, in the form of Common Brittonic, is found in Britain.
The Iron Age includes the period in which the Romans ruled most of the neighbouring island of Great Britain. Roman interest in the area led to some of the earliest written evidence about Ireland. The names of its tribes were recorded by the geographer Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD.[56]
The recorded tribes of Ireland included at least three with names identical or similar to British or Gaulish tribes: the Brigantes (also the name of the largest tribe in northern and midland Britain), the Manapii (possibly the same people as the Menapii, a Belgic tribe of northern Gaul) and the Coriondi (a name similar to that of Corinion, later Cirencester and the Corionototae of northern Britain).
Up to about 150 BC, there are many finds that show stylistic influence from continental Europe (as in the preceding Dowris phase), and some direct imports. After that date, relationships with British styles predominate, perhaps reflecting some movement of people. The Keshcarrigan Bowl, possibly made in Britain, is an example of this. Another cup found in Fore, County Westmeath does seem to be an import.[57]
Examples from Iron Age Ireland of
The headland of Drumanagh, near Dublin and not yet fully excavated, may have represented a centre for trade with Roman Britain. Drumanagh is an example of the coastal promontory fort, using cliff headlands with a narrow neck to reduce the extent of fortification necessary. In Ireland these seem to be mainly a feature of the Iron Age,[61] with some perhaps dating to the Bronze Age, and also continuing to be used into the Early Medieval period. Although today seen as mostly dating from the early historic period, some of the perhaps 60,000 ringforts or raths in Ireland date back to the Late Iron Age. These vary greatly in size and function, with smaller ones a single-family farmstead (with slaves), or merely an enclosure for animals, and larger ones clearly having a wider political and military significance.[62]
There are several ringforts in the complex topping the Hill of Tara, which seems to have its origins in the late Iron Age, although the site also includes a Neolithic passage grave and other earlier tombs.[61] This is one of a number of major sites connected in later literature and mythology with kingship, and probably had a ritual and religious significance, though it is now impossible to be clear as to what this was. Navan Fort (Emain Macha), another major hilltop site, had a very large circular building constructed on it about 100 BC. It was forty metres across, with 275 tree-posts in rings. The largest was the central post, a tree felled about 95 BC. Within the century following the whole building was destroyed, apparently in a ritual fashion.[63]
Other large-scale constructions, requiring a good degree of social organization, include linear earthworks such as the Black Pig's Dyke and Cliadh Dubh, probably representing boundaries, and acting as hindrances to cattle-raids, and "toghers" or wooden trackways across boggy areas,[61] of which the best-known is the Corlea Trackway, a corduroy road dated to 148-147 BC, and about a kilometre long and some three metres wide.[64]
Irish Dark Age (100 BC–AD 300)
The late Iron Age saw sizeable changes in human activity. Thomas Charles-Edwards coined the phrase "Irish Dark Age" to refer to a period of apparent economic and cultural stagnation in late prehistoric Ireland, lasting from c. 100 BC to c. AD 300.[65] He used the phrase to describe a gap in the archaeological record coinciding with the Roman Empire in Britain and continental Europe.[66] Charles-Edwards notes the lack of continuity between Ptolemy's writings on the peoples of second-century Ireland and writings in ogham in the fifth century.[67] He suggested that the decrease in agricultural productivity might be due to a large-scale export of slaves to Roman Britain.[68]
Others such as Joseph Raftery, Barry Raftery, and Donnchadh Ó Corráin have drawn attention to a decline in human settlement and activity in Ireland, starting from around the first century BC.[69][70][71] Pollen data extracted from Irish bogs indicate a decrease in human impact on plant life in the bogs in the third century,[72] and specifically that "the impact of human activity upon the flora around the bogs from which the pollen came was less between c. 200 BC and c. AD 300 than either before or after."[73] The third and fourth centuries saw a rapid recovery.[73]
The reasons for the decline and recovery are uncertain, but it has been suggested that recovery may be linked to the "Golden Age" of
Some protohistoric records begin to appear during this period. Early Irish literature was not written down until the Early Medieval period, but many scholars accept that the saga cycles preserve in some form elements from much earlier, that give some insights into the world of the last elites of prehistoric Ireland.[citation needed]
Bog bodies
The large areas of bog in Ireland have produced
Cashel Man died violently about 2500-2000 BC in the early Bronze Age, and is one of the possible ritual killings; it is now thought these were deposed kings sacrificed after being seen to fail in their rule, perhaps after crop failures.[76] Two Iron Age examples of apparent elite victims of ritual killing are Old Croghan Man and Clonycavan Man, both from approximately 400 to 175 BC.[77] Earlier bodies appear to have been normal burials.
Collections
Almost all prehistoric Irish finds remain in the
A legal dispute in which the Crown challenged the British Museum's purchase of the
Notes
- ^ "New Discovery Pushes Back Date of Human Existence in Ireland by 2500 years", Irish Archaeology
- ^ Irish Examiner; "Reindeer bone rewrites Irish human history", Irish Archaeology
- ^ 100 objects, "Mesolithic fish trap"
- ^ Wallace and O'Floinn, 92, 3:4
- S2CID 1324559.
- ^ Herity and Eogan, start of Ch. 2
- ^ Edwards, R.J.; Brooks, A. (2008). "The Island of Ireland: Drowning the Myth of an Irish Land-bridge?". In Davenport, J.J.; Sleeman, D.P.; Woodman, P.C. (eds.). Mind the Gap: Postglacial Colonisation of Ireland. Special Supplement to The Irish Naturalists' Journal. pp. 19–34. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
- S2CID 128396341. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
- ISBN 9789400757578. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
- ^ a b c Edwards, R.J., Brooks, A.J. (2008) "The Island of Ireland: Drowning the Myth of an Irish Land-bridge?" In: Davenport, J.J., Sleeman, D.P., Woodman, P.C. (eds.), Mind the Gap: Postglacial Colonisation of Ireland. Special Supplement to The Irish Naturalists’ Journal, pp 19-34, "The Island of Ireland: Drowning the Myth of an Irish Land-bridge?" Accessed 21 December 2018.
- ^ James Owen (2018). "Snakeless in Ireland: Blame Ice Age, Not St. Patrick". National Geographic. Archived from the original on 13 March 2021. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
- ^ Cunliffe, 2012, p. 56.
- ^ "New Discovery Pushes Back Date of Human Existence in Ireland by 2500 years", Irish Archaeology; BBC (21 March 2016). "Earliest evidence of humans in Ireland". BBC News. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
- ^ Wallace and O'Floinn, 45, 2:3 - they date it to 400,000-300,000 BC; picture and different account
- ^ "Reindeer bone found in Cork cave shows human activity in Ireland 33,000 years ago". 18 April 2021.
- .
- ^ Herity and Eogan, Start of Ch. 2
- ^ Wallace and O'Floinn, 45
- ^ Herity and Eoghan, Chapter 2
- S2CID 219730055.
- ^ Driscoll, K. The Early Prehistory in the West of Ireland: Investigations into the Social Archaeology of the Mesolithic, West of the Shannon, Ireland (2006).
- ^ BBC, A History of the World in 100 Objects
- ^ Woodman, Peter (1985). Excavations at Mount Sandel, 1973-77, County Londonderry. HM Stationery Office.
- S2CID 134546502.
- ^ a b "Kerry red deer ancestry traced to population introduced to Ireland by ancient peoples over 5,000 years ago". Retrieved 6 November 2012.
- ^ Wallace and O'Floinn, 45-46, 2:1
- ^ "Prehistoric Genocide in Ireland?" (PDF). Ireland's DNA. Retrieved 27 June 2015.
- ^ 100 objects, "Neolithic Bowl"
- ^ "Nutrition & Human Evolution"
- ^ Wallace and O'Floinn, 46-47, 2:4
- ^ 100 objects, "Ceremonial Axehead", Wallace and O'Floinn, 46, 2:5
- ^ Wallace and O'Floinn, 46-47, 2:1-9; 100 objects, "Flint Macehead"
- ^ Wallace and O'Floinn, 48, 2:10-14; 100 objects, "Neolithic Bag"
- ^ Bradley, R. 1997. "Signing the Land; Rock Art and the Prehistory of Atlantic Europe", Routledge, London.
- ^ Michael Herity and George Eogan, Ireland in Prehistory (1996), p.114; M.J. O'Kelly, Bronze-age Ireland, in A New History of Ireland, vol 1: Prehistoric and early Ireland, edited by Dáibhí Ó Cróinín (Royal Irish Academy 2005).
- ^ Wallace and O'Floinn, 49
- The Horse, the Wheel and Language: How Bronze-Age riders from the Eurasian steppes shaped the modern world(2007).
- ^ "A History of Ireland in 100 Objects" website
- ^ Michael Herity and George Eogan, Ireland in Prehistory (1996), pp.115–6.
- ^ 100 objects, "Basket Earrings"
- ^ 100 objects, "Pair of Gold Discs"
- ^ 100 objects, "Gleninsheen Gold Gorget"
- ^ Wallace and O'Floinn, 49-50, 2:15-21, 2:28-29 (Early to Middle) and 87-90, 3:6-24 (Late); 100 objects, "Coggalbeg Gold Hoard"
- ^ Wallace and O'Floinn, 93
- ^ a b Wallace and O'Floinn, 51
- ^ 100 objects, "Bronze Age Funerary Pots"
- ^ Wallace and O'Floinn, 86, 91, 125-126
- ^ Wallace and O'Floinn, 90-91, 125; 100 objects, "Castlederg Bronze Cauldron"
- ^ Wallace and O'Floinn, 53, 90
- ^ Wallace and O'Floinn, 125
- ^ Ó Cróinín, p. lx.
- OCLC 1000908777.
- ^ After Duffy (ed.), Atlas of Irish History, p. 15.
- ^ 100 objects, "Iron Spearhead"
- ^ A New History of Ireland, Volume I: Prehistoric and Early Ireland. Dáibhí Ó Cróinín (Editor).
- ^ Wallace and O'Floinn, 171
- ^ Wallace and O'Floinn, 127, 4:8; 100 objects, "Keshcarrigan Bowl"
- ^ Ó Cróinín, p. lx, "puzzling"
- ^ Wallace and O'Floinn, 126-127, 130-131, 4:5, 4:18; 100 objects, "Petrie 'Crown'"
- ^ Ó Cróinín, 137–152; Wallace and O'Floinn, 128-129, 4:10-14; 100 objects, "Broighter Boat"
- ^ a b c Wallace and O'Floinn, 126
- ^ Charles-Edwards, 151; Wallace and O'Floinn, 126
- ^ Charles-Edwards, 146-147
- ^ Megalithic Ireland.com, Corlea Trackway
- ^ Charles-Edwards, p. 145.
- ^ Thomas Charles-Edwards (2000) Early Christian Ireland, p. 145
- ^ Charles-Edwards (2000), p. 152
- ^ Charles-Edwards (2000), pp. 153–4
- ^ Joseph Raftery, "Iron Age and Irish sea: problems for research", in The Iron Age in the Irish Sea province, Cardiff, 1972, p. ?
- ^ Barry Raftery, Pagan Celtic Ireland: The Enigma of the Irish Iron Age, London, 1994
- ^ Donnchadh Ó Corráin, "Celtic problems in the Irish Iron Age", in Irish antiquity: Essays in memory of M.V. Duignan, 1979, p. 211
- ^ Charles-Edwards (2000), p. 148
- ^ a b Charles-Edwards, p. 148.
- ^ Charles-Edwards, 155-162, map 8; 100 objects, "Cunorix Gravestone"
- ^ Charles-Edwards, pp. 175–176.
- ^ Kingship and Sacrifice, NMI; "Laois 'bog body' said to be world's oldest", The Irish Times. 2 August 2013.
- ^ 100 objects, "Armlet, Old Croghan Man"
- ^ Wallace and O'Floinn, 4-9
- ^ Wallace and O'Floinn, 8
References
- "100 objects", A History of Ireland in 100 Objects, An Post, The Irish Times, National Museum of Ireland and the Royal Irish Academy, 2017
- Thomas Charles-Edwards, Early Christian Ireland, Cambridge, 2000
- Driscoll, K. The Early Prehistory in the West of Ireland: Investigations into the Social Archaeology of the Mesolithic, West of the Shannon, Ireland (2006).
- Herity, M. and G. Eogan. Ireland in Prehistory. (1996) Routledge. ISBN 0-415-04889-3
- ISBN 0-19-922665-2.
- Wallace, Patrick F., O'Floinn, Raghnall eds. Treasures of the National Museum of Ireland: Irish Antiquities, 2002, Gill & Macmillan, Dublin, ISBN 0717128296The book is chapters of text, followed by commentary on the illustrations and then a section with the illustrations, cross-referred by chapter and picture numbers, e.g. "3:13"
Further reading
- Dardis GF (1986). "Late Pleistocene glacial lakes in South-central Ulster, Northern Ireland". Ir. J. Earth Sci. 7: 133–144.
- Barry, T. (ed.) A History of Settlement in Ireland. (2000) Routledge. ISBN 0-415-18208-5.
- Bradley, R. The Prehistory of Britain and Ireland. (2007) Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-84811-3.
- Coffey, G. Bronze Age in Ireland (1913)
- Driscoll, K. The Early Prehistory in the West of Ireland: Investigations into the Social Archaeology of the Mesolithic, West of the Shannon, Ireland (2006).
- Flanagan L. Ancient Ireland. Life before the Celts. (1998). ISBN 0-312-21881-8
- Thompson, T. Ireland’s Pre-Celtic Archaeological and Anthropological Heritage. (2006) Edwin Mellen Press. ISBN 0-7734-5880-8.
- Waddell, J., The Celticization of the West: an Irish Perspective, in C. Chevillot and A. Coffyn (eds), L' Age du Bronze Atlantique. Actes du 1er Colloque de Beynac, Beynac (1991), 349–366.
- Waddell, J.,The Question of the Celticization of Ireland, Emania No. 9 (1991), 5–16.
- Waddell, J., 'Celts, Celticisation and the Irish Bronze Age', in J. Waddell and E. Shee Twohig (eds.), Ireland in the Bronze Age. Proceedings of the Dublin Conference, April 1995, 158–169.
Irish Dark Age
- "A note on climatic deterioration in the first millennium BC in Britain", Stuart Piggot, Scottish Archaeological Forum, iv, 1972, pp. 109–113
- "The Greek geographic tradition and Ptolemy's evidence for Irish geography", J.J. Tierney in Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, lxxvii, 1976, pp. 257–65
- "Dark Ages and the Pollen Record", D.A. Weir, Emania 11, 1993, pp. 21–30
- "Dark Ages and Dendrochronology", Mike Baillie, Emania 11, 1993, pp. 5–12
- "Cows, Ringforts and the Origins of Early Christian Ireland", F. McCormick, Emania 13, 1995, pp. 33–37
- "Iron-age Ireland", Barry Raftery in A New History of Ireland volume one, 2008, pp. 134–181
Archaeology
- Arias, J. World Prehistory 13 (1999):403–464.The Origins of the Neolithic Along the Atlantic Coast of Continental Europe: A Survey.
- Bamforth and Woodman, Oxford J. Arch. 23 (2004): 21–44. Tool hoards and Neolithic use of the landscape in north-eastern Ireland.
- Clark (1970) Beaker Pottery of Great Britain and Ireland of the Gulbenkain Archaeological Series, Cambridge University Press.
- Waddell, John (1998). The prehistoric archaeology of Ireland. Galway: Galway University Press. ISBN 9781901421101.
Genetics
- McEnvoy; et al. (2004). "The Longue Durée of Genetic Ancestry: Multiple Genetic Marker Systems and Celtic Origins on the Atlantic Facade of Europe". Am. J. Hum. Genet. 75 (4): 693–704. PMID 15309688.
- Finch; et al. (1997). "Distribution of HLA-A, B and DR genes and haplotypes in the Irish population". Exp. Clin. Immunogenet. 14 (4): 250–263. PMID 9523161.
- Williams; et al. (2004). "High resolution HLA-DRB1 identification of a caucasian population". Human Immunology. 65 (1): 66–77. PMID 14700598.
External links
- Ask about Ireland, Flora and fauna
- The Flandrian: the case for an interglacial cycle
- Ireland's history in maps : Ancient Ireland
- Postcards of the Prehistoric Monuments of Ireland
- John Waddell's publications on prehistory of Ireland
- Treasures of early Irish art, 1500 B.C. to 1500 A.D., an exhibition catalogue from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF)
- Prehistoric Waterford